The Sire Knows Best
by Nitrobot
Summary: In which Strongarm has a much needed family reunion, and still hasn't forgiven Sideswipe for 'the Windblade incident'. [RID with Strongswipe]
1. Chapter 1

_So a combination of headcanoning Wheeljack as Strongarm's dad, liking her and Sideswipe as a couple and hating Windblade's guts is what brought this fic about. And since it did well on AO3, I thought I'd put it up here as well._

 **xx**

Even with the tedious breaks in between rounding up Decepticons, Strongarm was starting to get real tired of all these unannounced arrivals. Drift and even Jazz she could tolerate to an extent, but ever since Windblade stuck her face in where she wasn't welcome and expected everyone to worship the ground her peds touched (Sideswipe practically did, which lead to a very long case of the silent treatment for him), Strongarm was always on the lookout for the wink of a Bridge swirling into existence.

At least this time she had Bumblebee with her on the scout patrol with Sideswipe lagging behind them. Either he felt the effects of Strongarm pointedly ignoring him or had sunk back into his 'lone wolf' mindset- either way, Strongarm was grateful he wasn't trying to get reactions out of her for once.

Bumblebee was the first to notice the ripple in the air, coming from their left in the wake of a green vortex starting to spread out. His blasters shifted out of his servos and aimed at the Bridge as it formed, and the other two mirrored his stance with Sideswipe guarding the other side.

A figure emerged from the waves just as authority entered Bee's voice. "Freeze!"

The silhouette stayed still and silent, hidden by the force of the vortex. Strongarm slowly moved closer, steadying her aim with a grip on her cannon.

"Put your servos in the air and don't move," she ordered, watching closely for any shift of plating or drawing of a weapon. The figure came into full view as the green and blue faded from the air, and a chuckle replaced its presence.

"Now is that any way to treat your sire, baby girl?"

Strongarm's blaster was gone before her servo slapped down at her side. She blinked dumbly, taking in the scuffed white armour and hidden samurai blades behind his raised servos. The fact that he obeyed her was a miracle in itself, let alone him standing there in the first place.

"Dad?" Her voice was a whisper foreign even to her own audios. She couldn't see Bumblebee's expression behind her, but Sideswipe's in front of her was a look of pure confusion.

With a knowing grin, Wheeljack lowered his servos and spread them out wide. "Well, don't just stand there, sweetspark." He gestured towards her with his hands, and even with witnesses Strongarm could stop from launching herself into his embrace. Her joy spilled over his shoulder in a laugh that refused to stop. Feeling him around her; inhaling the scent of plasma bullet residue, cyberette ash and high-grade, brought her plummeting into a wealth of childhood memories. He was the home she'd been longing for.

"I would'a brought the Jackhammer if it could fit through the Bridge," he lamented, prompting a muffled laugh from Strongarm.

"It's okay, Dad. I'm just happy you're here."

Wheeljack released her with a gentle nuzzle against her helm, still holding her shoulders as he looked past her to Bumblebee.

"Just couldn't stay away from here, huh, Bee?"

The yellow mech couldn't hide a grin as his blasters slid away from view. "Long time no see, Wheeljack."

Strongarm fought the urge to hug her sire again, knowing she'd never be pried off him if she did. "How's the uncles?"

Wheeljack smirked at her own name for the Wreckers. "Kup's livin' in the past and Magnus is tryin' to drive everyone down to Bullslag State, so business as usual." She didn't miss the sombre edge to his laugh. "But they all miss ya'. Your mother, especially."

Strongarm's spark tugged with sadness she only had a few nanoklicks to appreciate before it was swiftly replaced by annoyance at seeing red armour tapping on Wheeljack's shoulder.

"Um, excuse me, sir-" Wheeljack turned so fast that Sides' almost yelped in surprise. "Uh... Hi there, I'm Sideswipe!" he stuttered with a small wave. "You don't know me, but I've heard so much about you, I am a _huge_ fan-"

Wheeljack turned him helm to Strongarm with a raised eyeridge. "You know him, baby?"

Strongarm looked from one mech to the other, eventually settling on a dismissive shrug. "He's... a friend of mine."

Sideswipe got that confused look she tried to not think was cute again. "Um, actually, I'm her-" He started before being immediately cut off by a glare from Strongarm. She'd been giving him a watered-down version of the look for the past decacycle, so the full fury of it managed to shut his vocaliser long enough for him to change tactic.

"...good friend!" Sideswipe said with a fake smile that wouldn't have fooled a newspark. Wheeljack's scars creased in a skeptical frown, but he seemed to have a mental shrug.

"Alright then..." He stepped aside Strongarm and towards Bumblebee. "Now, where's your base set up? All this sentimental stuff is makin' me thirsty."


	2. Chapter 2

Grimlock was the first to greet Wheeljack when they got to the scrapyard, smothering him in a tackle that spoke of either a long lasting bond, or that Grimlock had gotten overcharged on high-grade energon again. Strongarm let Bumblebee introduce her sire to Fixit and the humans while staying back and eyeing Sideswipe with a scowl.

"I see you've got a _new_ bot to fawn over now," she mentioned with a nonchalance that just barely masked bitterness.

Sideswipe flicked his optics away from Wheeljack to the femme beside him in what dared to be a glare. "I see you're actually talking to me now."

Strongarm scoffed, folding her servos over her chest as if trying to hold her chamber in. "Stuff a sparkplug in it, Sides."

She couldn't tell if he had his own retort at the ready, but in any case he let it go with a sigh as he rubbed his helm. "Look, just tell me what I did wrong-"

"That's the thing, Sides," she interrupted, regretting the desperation laced in her voice. "You don't _realise_ what you did or why I'm upset about it. And until you do, we have nothing else to say to each other." She pushed off before he could give another plea. It wasn't entirely fair of her, she knew, but if she just told him the answer then there'd be no guarantee he wouldn't go ahead and do it all over again. The only way he'd emphasise with her is if he figured it out himself.

Strongarm ignored the ache surrounding her spark, trying to soothe it by going to her sire. Most bots only had a close connection with their carrier's spark, both physically and emotionally, but Strongarm had been linked to Wheeljack since she could walk. Her first years of being online were filled with chewing Decepticon-styled toys, target practice with a pellet gun and even going on fake missions set up by her sire and adopted uncles.

He'd always promised to take her on a real one some day, but the Elite Guard picked her up before the Wreckers could. The last time she'd seen him and her carrier was at her graduation ceremony.

Sitting down with Bumblebeee and a cube of energon, Wheeljack saw her approaching and gave her a grin that managed to yank her spark up into a giddy relief. "Havin' a little chat with your good friend?" He nodded towards where Sideswipe was still sulking, leaning against a stack of rusted car chassis.

Strongarm tried to keep her tone neutral. "You could say that... how're you liking the scrapyard?"

He gave the place a once over and shrugged after a sip of energon. "It's not much, but at least it's cleaner than the Wrecker barracks."

Bumblebee huffed a laugh in subtle agreement. "If only Optimus was here to give us some tips on base layout. We're having to make our quarters out of shacks."

Strongarm rolled her optics, knowing full well of Bee's attempts to get a proper dormitory going; mostly so Grimlock's snoring wouldn't coast all over the yard, and so her and Sideswipe would stop having evening trysts.

Well... at least that wouldn't be going on anymore. Strongarm shook herself and decided to distract herself with curiosity. "About the Wreckers, Dad... aren't you supposed to be on recruitment duty for them?"

"Still am, sweetspark. Actually... that's kinda why I'm here." Wheeljack rolled his cube around in his digits as Strongarm raised an eyeridge at the revelation, downing its contents before explaining.

"Recently there's not been a lot of good new recruits." Something remorseful had crept unwelcome into his voice, but he didn't seem to have the will to shove it aside. "Most of them're just teensparks or old gaskets tryin' to prove something to the universe. Unruly, unreliable... just take away my good looks and there ya' go." Wheeljack snorted rather than laughed, with his faceplate still sporting a grim expression. "If they don't get themselves killed, they'll do it to their teams."

He threw the empty cube aside and placed a servo on his knee, facing his daughter with a wide smile. "Which is why I put you forward to be our newest member."

The elation that suspended Strongarm's spark cut off suddenly, causing her chamber to lurch as shock settled in. Her processor skipped as it tried to get through the emotions rushing in all at once.

"I thought... Wreckers didn't take in soldiers from other units." It was one of the oldest laws of the faction, to ensure total loyalty and clean slate recruits open to the all-or-nothing and guns-blazing approach of their teammates.

Wheeljack seemed pleased she'd remembered. "Magnus'll make an exception for you." There was a slight hint of "or else" in his tone, but he always sounded like that where Strongarm's most militant uncle was concerned.

That dealt with the confusion that first cropped up, at least. Now all she had to juggle was the brimming ecstasy at her lifelong dream coming true in the space of a breem, and... guilt?

Of course; if she went with Wheeljack, she'd be leaving the other 'Bots alone on a planet full of aliens and Decepticons, not to mention leaving behind the mission Optimus Prime gave them all. That wasn't even touching on the mess she'd made with Sideswipe. Primus, wasn't she supposed to be the selfless one of the group?

Wheeljack placed a servo on her knee, giving the plating a light warm squeeze. "'Bee told me 'bout what you're doing here, rounding up all these escaped 'Cons and... something about orders from 'Optimus'." He rolled his optics at the mention. "Can't say I believe in ghosts myself, but-"

Bumblebee stepped in with a slightly irritated air. "What I said was, you shouldn't be forced to stay here if you'd rather be with the Wreckers. If you want to go with Wheeljack, none of us will hold it against you. It's your choice, Strongarm."

Oh scrap, even Bee was making it hard for her. The temptation of leaving was growing by the klick; she could practically smell the oil showers and taste energon in her mouth from a rough sparring session. She missed something she'd never even been a true part of, and now with the opportunity to join she wasn't sure if the reality would fit with her fuzzy memories.

She licked her lips, ready to give a verdict, when Sideswipe quite literally stepped in and almost knocked a stack of scrap over with his ped.

"Strongarm, wait." She noted the distinct absence of begging in his voice. "Before you say anything, can I...?" He gestured to the space in between them both and Wheeljack. Strongarm wasn't quite sure what he was asking, but she nodded regardless.

Sideswipe turned to Wheeljack with backstrut straight and optics just barely managing to meet the larger mech's. "Sir, your daughter is... absolutely incredible." The waver of his vocaliser could have easily been given over to awe rather than nerves. "Took me too long to realise it, and recently I actually forgot how special she was. But she's saved all our afts, mine especially, on more than one occasion. If she isn't here to keep us all in line, well... I don't think Earth would be so welcome to us anymore. More than even that..." He turned back toward her with a smile that could've melted her spark under any other circumstance. "We've all got a pretty hefty debt to repay to her. And I'd like to do mine's before she leaves."

He was trying to make public amends. Strongarm didn't know if he figured out the problem yet, but the fact he was trying was enough. For once, she couldn't see what her sire was thinking. He was one of those mechs who didn't need a battlemask to hide his emotions. She'd yet to learn his secret, so there must have been a flicker of the guilt in her optics when he glanced over at her.

"Do you really want to stay here, sweetspark?" There was a searching disappointment that tore Strongarm between the worlds she wanted.

She cycled air heavily before letting it carry her voice. "Dad... you know I'd give anything to be fighting alongside you, but..." Once again her optics betrayed her as they flicked to Sideswipe. Looking at him without a grudge clouding her vision now; something floated on top of the organised chaos that was occupying her processor, something she remembered Wheeljack saying once about her carrier. "...I guess you could say I've found my anchor."

Wheeljack's helm panels twitched, and a sad smile cracked over his old faceplate. "I see. Well, I trust you to know what's good for ya'." He hefted himself up on his peds with creaky joints. "The others'll be upset, but they'll be glad to know you're well. And your Mama'll be happy you're still as beautiful as her."

Strongarm fought a blush off as Wheeljack nodded to Bumblebee. "Good to see ya' again, Bee. I'll take off in the mornin' if you find me somewhere to recharge for the night."

A bloom of sadness hit back at Strongarm even as her digits subconsciously wreathed between Sideswipe's. "Do you need to leave so soon?"

Wheeljack shrugged helplessly. "Yeah, we can only use the Bridge so often and we're low on senior Wreckers. If I stay longer than a solar cycle the whole base'll be rubble by the time I get back." Lightness had returned to his vocaliser, and he looked at her with a familiar softness. "I'll check in on you every few vorns, though. Make sure the planet's still here and Unicron ain't been woken up again. But Sides..." For the first time Wheeljack properly noticed the red mech, fixing him in a dangerous stare. "Treat your 'good friend' well, or I'll be back a lot sooner. And Unicron'll looklike a half-wired turbofoxcompared to me."

Sideswipe somehow recovered from the imminent spark attack. "U-Understood, sir, loud and clear." He even saluted to drive the point home, grinning nervously. Wheeljack huffed, only smiling when his gaze settled back on his daughter.

"Anyway, we've still got a whole day left, and I gotta visit to your brothers down at Griffon Rock. Think you can finally beat me at a race there?"

Strongarm mirrored his smugness and waggled her eyeridges at him. "I know I can, _old model_." Before he could finish laughing she was already zooming off in her alt mode, kicking up dust and scrap pieces in her wake.

Wheeljack was cleaning his optics out and forcing clogged air through his vents as he stared after her, laughing louder than Sideswipe ever heard. "Y'know, I just don't know where she gets it from." With a surprising dexterity even for a young mech that he certainly wasn't, Wheeljack flipped backwards to transform and stubbornly planted his wheels in the dirt, sending up even larger plumes of dirt than his daughter before shooting off in her tracks.

In a very rare moment of distraction, Sideswipe didn't bother with brushing his armour clean. Instead he and Bumblebee watched the two fade into the horizon line, eventually lost in a whirl of dust.

Bee gave a small laugh beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You don't know what you've gotten yourself into with her, Sides."


	3. Chapter 3

Sideswipe knew there'd be no avoiding the dreaded "talk" with Wheeljack, short of following Strongarm's lead in driving off into the sunset to the furthest corner of the planet (and even that was looking like a good option compared to facing off against the Wrecker's most famous hothead). So he at least made himself comfortable for the ordeal, grabbing an energon cube and seating himself on top of a hill overlooking the surrounding forest, watching the sun starting to sink below the treeline. After half a breem he was hoping Wheeljack just wouldn't bother to find him but, even under a layer of dust and grime, the Wrecker's white armour was unmistakeable as it sped below through the undergrowth, sending sleepy birds squawking to the amber sky and leaves flying behind him.

If he knew the type of family he was getting himself into, he might have just left Strongarm to some better mech than him.

Sideswipe heard Wheeljack's tires skidding to a stop behind him, the crunch of his T-cog, and the scuff of his peds against the ground as he approached, yet he couldn't bring himself to look around. It was like facing his own sire when he'd done something wrong, the reluctance to look at the hard face of responsibility glaring at him. The only difference was that the face had scars.

"When Strongarm was a sparklin', I used to take her up to see solar flares," Wheeljack said innocently enough. Hearing the casualness of his tone, seeing the languiness of his stance as he seated himself on a rock, that was when Sideswipe knew it was going to be a very uncomfortable interrogation. "Can't see them from here, but... I guess sunsets are alright as well."

Sideswipe only trusted himself with a safe nod and brief sound of assent, wary as a hunter around a wild Driller nest. He'd heard once that some animals were provoked by the colour red in particular which only prompted him to hide himself even more, cursing the morning spent buffing his armour to a crimson shine.

"You must mean a lot to her if she's willin' to park herself here," Wheeljack continued. There was the sound of a match striking stone and the wispy fumes of a cyberette tickling Sideswipe's olfactories, threatening to clog them up if he didn't say something.

"She's important to all of us," he answered as neutrally as he could. He had no idea what Strongarm might have told him during their drive together, bonding over things he could only wish for, but it must have been obvious how close they really were. Even so, Sideswipe wasn't in the mind of drawing attention to it; he'd heard horror stories about possessive sires reducing their daughter's suitors to rust stains with just words, and horror stories about Wheeljack in general.

They never did specify what those words actually were, so Sideswipe wasn't sure what to brace himself for. What he got was a single sentence; a musing thrown away as if it was a loose bolt, as fleeting as the smoke from his cyberette.

"Yet you're the one who got her knocked up."

A more summary might have been, "the most confusing news of his entire life".

Sideswipe couldn't hide behind politeness now, staring at Wheeljack from his seat like he was looking at Megatron reincarnated. The older mech seemed to be waiting for an answer that wasn't just a river of babbles from Sides' limp glossa, flapping uselessly like a beached salmon. "I...I-I... I didn't..." He swallowed his shock, trying to block out the light from the sunset. Suddenly it was blinding him.

"If you're thinkin' someone else is the sire, you're the only one around here who's interfaced with her," Wheeljack informed him after a drag on his cyberette, as if they were two long lost friends sharing the mundane events of their pre-war lives. Sideswipe felt like the cliff was collapsing underneath them, _hoping_ it, even. Primus, he practically knew everything. His on and off trysts with his daughter, never anything serious as love or flimsy as a one night stand. It was... well, it was something to do between fighting Decepticons and fighting themselves. Something to keep the lonely nights warm and give his spark chamber something to glow for.

Wheeljack was still looking at him, now like he was a klick and one more smoke puff away from forcibly castrating him. If the Wrecker was pissed before, he was using all his self control to hold himself back now.

"I never..." Sideswipe's glossa was doing the dead-salmon routine all over again. He shook his helm, pressing digits deep into his forehelm, sinking onto his rock with his elbows held up on his knees. "I didn't know she was carrying!" he managed to confess, burying his faceplate in his hands in a perfect model of 'desperate deadbeat dad'.

"Well, ya know now, son." Wheeljack's flippant tone caused a dangerous contrast to the blaze of his optics glaring across at Sideswipe, tossing his empty cyberette aside with a flick of his digits. Sideswipe tried not to think of the similarities between himself and the smoldering stalk. He was barely brave enough to glance over at the grandsire-to-be, but something else started to bloom over his anger. Sudden splotches of unexpected sympathy spreading, probably the only reason he didn't have thick hands grinding his neck cables into a frayed mess.

"I was a young sire myself," Wheeljack admitted with a weary nostalgia, propping a leg up on a smaller rock near his perch and staring off at the sunset's evening encore. "Met Strongarm's mother during a bar brawl. She was the only one strong enough to drag me outta there, and one breem later we were expectin'." He smiled to himself and twitched his digits, pining for a fresh cyberette or any kind of distraction. Sideswipe was about to speak when his optics were locked to intense blue beams, staring right through his helm.

"Do you love her, Sideswipe?"  
It was a question he only ever asked himself after a long round of interface had exhausted him; waiting for recharge to catch up while watching Strongarm sleep in the crook of his servo, hearing the bubbling snores of her vents, absorbing the sight of her moonlight dappled protoform. He struggled to find something more beautiful than her armourless.

Having a child with her... he hadn't considered it, but it wasn't something to instantly reject. Earth was hardly the right place to raise one, and a pregnant femme (even one like Strongarm, built like a tank and carried herself like a Seeker) had no place on a battlefield, but being with her through all the possibilities of the future... his spark picked up pace, burning doubts away.

He didn't know if it was love, but he knew it was good enough for him to stay with her.

"I... I do." Sideswipe's voice sounded foreign to him, a choked mess of static in his audios even as his spark inflated beyond his chamber. It was so easy to admit now; energon was blue, lilleths lived in trees, and he loved Strongarm. It was as simple as that. "I know I do."

Wheeljack peered at him, weighing up the cautious smile and glittering optics of his son-in-law. Sideswipe couldn't tell what he was thinking, but at least the sympathy remained in small measures. "What I'm sayin' is, I won't ask you to love a kid you never planned on havin', and I know she won't either. But..." He looked away, an alien discomfort starting to take hold. "Make sure she's alright. Keep an optic on her and all that." He was muttering, as if even the possibility of Strongarm being alone was too much to speak of. "She takes too much after me, always gettin' in over her helm... I worry. I know I shouldn't, I trained her myself, but I do anyway."

There was nothing harder to watch than a tough mech collapsing on the inside. Sideswipe had to put an end to it right now.

"I won't leave her side," he said firmly, meeting Wheeljack's gaze with no trouble now. "And I'll... I'll raise our kid right. I promise."

"I'll hold ya' to that, punk," Wheeljack promised in turn, giving a lazy smirk as his manliness rebuilt itself. He rose to his peds, trying to hide how much his legs were shaking, and Sideswipe felt compelled to stand as well. The Wrecker offered a servo out, some kind of mock peace treaty, and Sideswipe graciously took it.

"Oh, as for... any other femmes you might have your optic on..."

Wheeljack stepped in close, and here came the part Sides' was _really_ dreading all along, as well as the sudden popping of pistons in his hand as Wheeljack slowly crushed it in his grip. "You ever ditch my baby girl like that again and my ped will be so far up your exhaust pipe I'll be kicking your damn spark chamber into shape." If there was ever a mech who could literally snarl like an Insecticon, Wheeljack did a damn good job of it. "You understand me, boy?"

"L-loud and clear, sir." To Sideswipe's credit, he managed not to cry until his servo was finally released, checking the hand frantically for any broken wires as Wheeljack started to slope off.

"I'll won't be gone for long," he said in a precautionary way. "Wouldn't miss my own grandkid's birth." He turned back around, giving another accusatory look at Sides. "But if come back and I see Strongarm ain't happy-"

"Ped, exhaust pipe, spark chamber," Sideswipe recited carefully, cradling his throbbing servo to his spark. "I'll... remember that."


End file.
